Network Working Group K. Zeilenga
Request for Comments: 3673 OpenLDAP Foundation
Category: Standards Track December 2003
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol version 3 (LDAPv3):All Operational Attributes
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) supports a mechanism
for requesting the return of all user attributes but not all
operational attributes. This document describes an LDAP extension
which clients may use to request the return of all operational
attributes.
1. Overview
X.500 [X.500] provides a mechanism for clients to request all
operational attributes be returned with entries provided in response
to a search operation. This mechanism is often used by clients to
discover which operational attributes are present in an entry.
This documents extends the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
(LDAP) [RFC3377] to provide a simple mechanism which clients may use
to request the return of all operational attributes. The mechanism
is designed for use with existing general purpose LDAP clients
(including web browsers which support LDAP URLs) and existing LDAP
APIs.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119].
Zeilenga Standards Track [Page 1]

RFC 3673 LDAPv3: All Operational Attributes December 20032. All Operational Attributes
The presence of the attribute description "+" (ASCII 43) in the list
of attributes in a Search Request [RFC2251] SHALL signify a request
for the return of all operational attributes.
As with all search requests, client implementors should note that
results may not include all requested attributes due to access
controls or other restrictions. Client implementors should also note
that certain operational attributes may be returned only if requested
by name even when "+" is present. This is because some operational
attributes are very expensive to return.
Servers supporting this feature SHOULD publish the Object Identifier
1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.5.1 as a value of the 'supportedFeatures'
[RFC3674] attribute in the root DSE.
3. Interoperability Considerations
This mechanism is specifically designed to allow users to request all
operational attributes using existing LDAP clients. In particular,
the mechanism is designed to be compatible with existing general
purpose LDAP clients including those supporting LDAP URLs [RFC2255].
The addition of this mechanism to LDAP is not believed to cause any
significant interoperability issues (this has been confirmed through
testing). Servers which have yet to implement this specification
should ignore the "+" as an unrecognized attribute description per
[RFC2251, Section 4.5.1]. From the client's perspective, a server
which does not return all operational attributes when "+" is
requested should be viewed as having other restrictions.
It is also noted that this mechanism is believed to require no
modification of existing LDAP APIs.
4. Security Considerations
This document provides a general mechanism which clients may use to
discover operational attributes. Prior to the introduction of this
mechanism, operational attributes were only returned when requested
by name. Some might have viewed this as obscurity feature. However,
this feature offers a false sense of security as the attributes were
still transferable.
Implementations SHOULD implement appropriate access controls
mechanisms to restricts access to operational attributes.
Zeilenga Standards Track [Page 2]

RFC 3673 LDAPv3: All Operational Attributes December 20035. IANA Considerations
This document uses the OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.5.1 to identify the
feature described above. This OID was assigned [ASSIGN] by OpenLDAP
Foundation, under its IANA-assigned private enterprise allocation
[PRIVATE], for use in this specification.
Registration of this feature has been completed by IANA [RFC3674],
[RFC3383].
Subject: Request for LDAP Protocol Mechanism Registration
Object Identifier: 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.5.1
Description: All Op Attrs
Person & email address to contact for further information:
Kurt Zeilenga <kurt@openldap.org>
Usage: Feature
Specification: RFC3673
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: none
6. Acknowledgment
The "+" mechanism is believed to have been first suggested by Bruce
Greenblatt in a November 1998 post to the IETF LDAPext Working Group
mailing list.
7. Intellectual Property Statement
The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to
pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it
has made any effort to identify any such rights. Information on the
IETF's procedures with respect to rights in standards-track and
standards-related documentation can be found in BCP-11. Copies of
claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of
licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to
obtain a general license or permission for the use of such
proprietary rights by implementors or users of this specification can
be obtained from the IETF Secretariat.
Zeilenga Standards Track [Page 3]

RFC 3673 LDAPv3: All Operational Attributes December 200310. Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
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Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
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English.
The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
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This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
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BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
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Acknowledgement
Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
Internet Society.
Zeilenga Standards Track [Page 5]